Situated in the Pacific Ocean some 620 miles (1,000 km) from the South American continent, these 19 islands and the surrounding marine reserve have been called a unique “living museum and showcase of evolution”. Photo: “Close-up. We had a juvenile Red-Footed Booby come visit us on the sun deck. I got some closeups with my ultrawide 11-16mm Tokina”. (Photo by Carl Fredrickson)

Deadwood is pictured in the onetime spa and resort town Epecuen, November 5, 2015. Over the past few years the town of Epecuen, located 550 km (341 miles) southwest of Buenos Aires, has been attracting tourists with its eerie apocalyptic atmosphere after a flood submerged it in salt water for more than two decades. Photo by Enrique Marcarian/Reuters)

A Nymph or female devotee of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community, prays at their temple complex in Vale do Amanhecer (Sunrise Valley), a community on the outskirts of Planaltina, 50 km from the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, on April 29, 2023. This eclectic community holds its most important ritual of the year on Labour Day to honour the mediums who communicate with good and bad spirits. The group combines a range of religious practices, including Christian and Hindu, with symbols borrowed from the Incas and Mayans, as well as a belief in extraterrestrial life and intergalactic travel. The religion claims hundred temples throughout Brazil, Portugal and other countries. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

Buzludzha is a historical peak in the Central Stara Planina, Bulgaria and is 1441 metres high. In 1868 it was the place of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Ottoman Empire. The Buzludzha Monument on the peak was built by the Bulgarian communist regime to commemorate the events in 1891 when the socialists led by Dimitar Blagoev assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement with the founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, a fore-runner of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The Monument was opened in 1981. No longer maintained by the Bulgarian government, it has fallen into disuse. Buzludzha is reached by a 12 km side road from the Shipka Pass.

Ban Gioc – Detian Falls are two waterfalls on the Quây Sơn River, in Chinese Guichun River, straddling the Sino-Vietnamese border, located in the Karst hills of Daxin County, Guangxi (Chinese side), and in Trùng Khánh District, Cao Bằng province on the Vietnamese side, 272 km (169 mi) north of Hanoi. In Vietnamese, the two falls are considered as two parts of one waterfall with the sole name Bản Giốc. The two parts are called as: thác chính (Main waterfall) and thác phụ (Subordinate waterfall). Chinese texts sometimes name both falls from the Détiān falls on the Chinese side. During the summer rains the two waterfalls may join together.

Members of a music band rest before the procession of “Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem”, in Constancia April 6, 2015. This benediction has been held annually for about 200 years. In the past, goods were transported by the Tagus river in small boats to Lisbon, 100 km south. The sailors, as the navigation was dangerous, blessed their boats every year during the festivity of “Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem”. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)